I also think it's a shame that the arts are moving farther and farther down the list. Our schools are struggling just to pay for the high gas prices. We had a wonderful museum featuring life for families who worked in the cotton mills a block away from our Elementary School, and they have programs for each grade each year, but this year they have talked of cutting some of the programs because they are limiting field trips (even though the kids can WALK to this one).

I guess that means that we may need to reach out to offer our own volunteer hours to the schools. Perhaps we have something to offer. Many kids' ONLY exposure to certain forms of art will be in school.

We do not even have a movie theater in our town, but we DO have plays. The high school drama team does productions, and we try to support that as well. We used to have something called "Symphony in the Park" for the 4th of July, but I don't think they've had that for a few years. It seemed like it rained more often than not on the 4th.

I got tickled the other day when I turned on the radio in the car. The kids said "Oh, that is Little Einsteins music!" (a kid show about famous musical pieces) I didn't argue but just smiled and enjoyed the music with the kids.

The rising costs (as mentioned above) really do make it harder on struggling families like my own.